…One tree at a time.

Using the Student Share Drive

New this year is the redesign of the original student share drive. In the past, the student share drive was a general repository for anything and everything. It was just an open shared folder on the server which both students and teachers had open access to. This first evolution of the shared drive offerred functionality never before seen at West High. No longer did everything need to be printed or saved on floppy disks.

It worked well for a few years, but then students got smart. They learned how to pass notes, cheat on tests, plagiarize, and copy homework. Something had to be done about security.

Over the summer, we redesigned the security on the folder. Now, instead of just a general unorganized folder where you can save anything, it is a tightly secured system for students and teachers to share electronically. If you open Start –> My Computer –> Student Share you will see two folders, one called “Digital Dropbox” and the other “Teacher Files.” Although both folders contain a folder for every teacher, they are designed for two different purposes. 

The Digital Dropbox is where students can save or turn in their work for you to see and grade. Inside your folder in the Digital Dropbox is a folder for every period you teach. Students may save their work here for you to access from anywhere in the district. It is designed so that students cannot see, copy, move, or delete each other’s work, but they can save there and access their own work.

The Teacher Files folder is the opposite. This folder is designed for you to put power point presentations, worksheets, templates, word documents, directions, and any other documents you would like your students to access during the time they are in school. They cannot save over or modify anything you put there,  but they can read it.

Both folders together are a powerful tool to manage student work. Not only do they simplify computer projects and encourage academic integrity, if students save instead of print, you can also significantly reduce the amount of paper and toner used in the building, your contribution to saving the environment and the world.